Indie Success Interview #2: Talking with Romantasy Author Sophia St. Germain

My copy of the first book in Sophia St. Germain’s Compelling Fates Saga

As any author knows, writing a book is a monumental task. And writing a book readers will love dwarfs that. As if that’s not hard enough, it’s just the beginning of your journey. Once you write, you have to market. And that holds true whether you’re seeking traditional publication or whether you’re self-publishing.

If you’re seeking traditional publication, you have to sell your book to agents and publishers—and then, if you manage that, you’ll still have to do much of your own marketing. If you’re an indie author, you get to skip the agents-and-publishers step, but you have to start your marketing from ground level, without the imprimatur of a publisher behind you.

It’s a rare author who finds both writing and marketing approachable. I come from a writing background, and I know how hard it is for many of us to drop the “art for art’s sake” mentality, or the belief that writers are introverts who are bound to fail at marketing. Now, as a freelance editor rather than a writer, it’s still something I struggle with!

But marketing doesn’t have to be scary. For many of us, learning to market successfully involves changing one’s mindset around what marketing is in the first place. For many authors I know, that might mean focusing on marketing in terms of genuine connections, not in terms of extracting value from potential readers. That’s something I’ve found helpful in my own business: I focus on making genuine connections and forming friendships with other editors rather than “networking” with an eye to making money. And I’ve noticed that some of the authors whom I’ve seen have the most phenomenal success in crowded markets are ones who genuinely love interacting with their fans—even to the point of supporting them in their own writing ambitions, then sharing their books.

But marketing remains difficult for most of us. And that’s why I was so keen to interview the fabulous Sophie St. Germain for my second Indie Success Interview: I’ve been blown away not only by the compulsive readability of her books but by how successfully she’s brought them together with readers who love them. It can be difficult to market a new series, especially when you’re shifting genres or audiences, but as I write, Sophia’s first Compelling Fates Saga book has well over a thousand Goodreads ratings—many of them accompanied by rave reviews!—and the second installment, which is released today, already has hundreds of ratings and reviews that are equally enthusiastic. That’s especially impressive when you consider that many readers won’t start a series until it’s complete, since they’ve felt let down by series that were never finished.

So, on to our interview!

Finding Author and Reader Communities

You wouldn’t guess it from her work, but Sophia’s first language isn’t English. “I was born and raised in Sweden, so technically Swedish is my first language… I speak three languages fluently, with a few others that I can get by in.” Sophia always loved English and creative writing (“going back so far that when my parents bought me diaries I’d just make up random stories in them, usually about princesses fighting for their country and finding a cute prince—no shock I eventually ventured into romantasy!”) and took all the language classes she could in high school.

Although she was accepted to journalism school, her parents convinced her to study business. “I am happy about [that] now in hindsight, as I think working within sales and marketing for ten years has really aided me in being an indie author—I had no idea how much more time I’d actually spend on social media / marketing programs, et cetera, than writing in the end.”

And although she was concerned that being a nonnative speaker would affect the way readers viewed her work, she said, “I have had absolutely the opposite experience, with people cheering me on, and finding a small but mighty community of authors who also write in English although their first language is another.”

Community has also been key to her use of social media. In terms of marketing her books, “really taking my social presence seriously has helped tremendously,” she said. And when marketing on social media platforms, “I also enjoy being part of the community (being a huge reader myself, I often find books through the people I follow), and I tend to comment/share/like as much as I can. I really try to see TikTok and Instagram as something fun as opposed to a stressor, so when a video or post doesn’t do well, I can just shrug at it and move on.”

That comes back to a marketing tip I’ve heard from other marketing experts: When choosing a social media platform to market on, it’s important to consider whether your target audience uses that platform—but it’s equally important to choose a platform you genuinely enjoy. People respond poorly when they feel someone’s trying to extract value from them, and when you post without being part of the community, without trying to offer something in return, that’s how it often feels to your audience members. When you can genuinely engage, your posts are more likely to find a willing audience. And although engagement can be hard for introverts—it’s something I struggle with myself!—choosing a platform you like removes some of the stress. And, as Sophia says, it makes it easier to focus on the fun aspects of posting, not just the metrics.

The Importance of Social Media

As Sophia pointed out, the benefits of taking social media seriously go far beyond finding a supportive and enjoyable community. “I have to date not paid a single dollar in marketing (outside of physical ARCs for book influencers), so my numbers are mostly organic reach, which feels amazing.” Well, that’s probably because it is! (She added, “I do plan on incorporating ad spend by the end of the year, but right now I am happy to see how my channels are growing.”)

What’s her main tip for social media? “Study it like you study the English language. Once you do, you’ll start to see why some videos and reels do so well, and you can copy that model to your own work. Some of my best-performing videos (e.g., one with 1.2 million views on Instagram) took me one minute to create. I’ve learned that readers in my genre respond well to either emotional posts or spicy ones, so I generally post a mixture of these—approximately one video on Instagram a day, and one to three on TikTok a day.”

As someone who’s recently started experimenting with TikTok, I can vouch for the fact that it’s not as easy for all of us as it seems to be for her! On one hand, it may be easier to find a social media audience for books in a genre with such a hungry and eager audience. (I’m afraid there’s a much smaller audience for people seeking grammar and craft tips on TikTok!) But on the other hand, Instagram and TikTok are overflowing with romantasy authors—and many of them struggle to get any reach.

If you want to study Sophia’s posts and try to copy them yourself, you can find her on Instagram (@sophiastgermain_author), Threads (@sophiastgermain_author), and TikTok (@sophiastgermain).

Avoiding Scams

When I asked about regrets, the first thing Sophia mentioned was “book influencer” scams: “I definitely fell for a few ‘book influencers’ reaching out and wanting a free copy because of their follower account in the beginning, and was ghosted by… you guessed it, 100 percent of them.” She added, “Now I send copies to my amazing street team and for a few formal book tours, but not one-off book influencers, as there unfortunately are quite a few scammers out there only looking for free books.”

Another regret? “I did wish I had invested in character art earlier than I did, as I think it has really helped me on social media (and readers love getting visuals of the characters). But I’m making up for it now—working with several talented artists on it.”

On Track for Success

When I asked what success would mean for Sophia, she said, “I would absolutely love to do this work full-time some day, but right now I am trying to enjoy being able to do it on the side of my full-time job (which I am lucky to also love), as I don’t have to stress if my book doesn’t do well / when I have days with zero sales, et cetera.”

Hearteningly, she said she feels she’s on the track to success. The first book in the Compelling Fates Saga, A Tongue So Sweet and Deadly, was the third book of her career and her most successful launch of those three. She had around three hundred preorders, including from KDP, IngramSpark, and her website (where she sold signed copies). After three months, she’d sold 1,500 copies across Kindle and physical books, with an approximately 50/50 split between ebook and physical copies.

A Tongue So Sweet and Deadly “has done best in Kindle Unlimited, though,” where it had 1.2 million page reads at the date of our interview (in late March) and had helped her break even after only 2.5 months. (For those not in the know, Kindle Unlimited is a program on Amazon that lets subscribers access the entire Kindle Unlimited library for a small monthly fee, and authors are paid by the page read. The per-page pay is low—less than half a cent—and your ebooks have to be exclusive to Kindle, but many authors in genres with hungry readers find they earn good money from this program.)

Book two, A Promise So Bold and Broken, sounds as if it’s been doing even better: Over a month before its release, Sophia was nearing five hundred preorders!

On top of that, Sophia added, “I also just signed with Podium Entertainment, who bought the audiobook rights to the Compelling Fates Saga, so these are currently being produced, and I am so excited to see the books in a new format.” As someone who currently does most of my fun reading in audiobook format while doing my marathon training, I think this is phenomenal news and that audiobooks will bring the books to a new audience.

Final Thoughts

When I asked for any final thoughts, Sophia reiterated the importance of social media: “It doesn’t have to be daunting (or take a crazy amount of time), but it is so useful in building your reader community. I think I spend probably 1.5 hours per week maximum on creating content (and I try to do it in one go so it doesn’t become a stressor), and then a bit more on answering direct messages and comments.”

Another excellent tip: “Have fun with it and don’t compare yourself to others. I’ve seen so many authors be discouraged by the ones who manage to get enormous success with book one, but I think it’s important to remember we all have our own journey, and I expect mine to be slow and steady because that’s how I can manage it without burning out.” That’s crucial to remember—and I’d add that a slow-burn career trajectory can often be much more sustainable (both emotionally and career-wise) than instant success. For traditionally published authors, that often means taking a few books to get an agent or publisher; for indie authors, it often means a readership that slowly increases until it finally reaches a tipping point.

Interested in learning more or picking up a copy of one of Sophia’s books? Check out her website, where you can purchase copies, take a look at her character art, and even scope out events where you can meet her in person. Links to all her social media channels are there as well—and with today being release day for A Promise So Bold and Broken, I expect it’ll be extra exciting!

Read the introduction to my Indie Success Interviews here.